How to connect Google Home and IFTTT to do amazing things with your connected tech

Controlling hundreds of smart devices and services by voice is easy with IFTTT's Google Assistant channel.

One of the cool things you can do with your Google Home is using your voice to control connected items around your house. While there are native connections to things like Phillips Hue lamps, SmartThings devices and Nest equipment, Google Home's Assistant was ready for IFTTT on day one. That means you can control all sorts of things!

In case you didn't know or just weren't sure, IFTTT (short for IFThis Then That) is an online service that smart devices can connect to and it facilitates communications between them. Companies like Facebook and Amazon and Google have used the service for a while and there are literally hundreds of "things" that connect to IFTTT. Some you've heard of and some you haven't. Getting things to talk to one another is also simple to set up using a sort of flow chart system. Pick a "thing" that will be a trigger — the weather channel says it's going to rain — then pick a thing that will act on that trigger — I get a text message telling me to bring my umbrella.

IFTTT is the messenger between two services and knows how to talk to both.

It works the same way with Google Home through Google Assistant. When you say "OK, Google. Turn on my bedroom TV," it's a trigger that the IFTTT Harmony channel can use to fire up my television through my Harmony remote. It's really easy to use and works surprisingly well. Even if you don't have a Google Home or a phone with Assistant it's worth taking a look at because you probably are using something that is hooked into IFTTT. Have a look at the list of supported applets. Now think of things you can do to one of them that will make another do something on its own. Taste the rainbow.

The best way to understand how IFTTT works and to learn how to get it to play nice with Assistant is to just do it.

Visit the IFTTT website or install the app from Google Play and get an account set up. If you already have an account at IFTTT, you can use it (and you likely already know how easy it is to add a channel like Google Assistant.)

Make sure you're logged in at IFTTT, and head to the Google Assistant applet page. You can find it at ifttt.com/google_assistant if you're using a web browser, and if you're using the IFTTT app tap the search button at the bottom and search for "Google" and it will be the first one on the list.

Once you're there, tap the blue Connect button. You'll be redirected to a secure Google login page unless you're already logged in through the browser or on your phone. If you have two-factor authentication enabled on your Google account you'll need to authorize things. Once you're logged in properly you'll be asked to allow IFTTT to "Manage Google Voice commands." Tap the Allow button and you're done.

You're conveniently redirected back to the Google Assistant page at IFTTT. You'll see all sorts of pre-built applets you can play with that have Google Assistant do things like tell your robot vacuum to clean the room or turn your lights on. You'll also find practical things like writing a note to Evernote or Todoist or Google Drive, making your lost phone ring or logging meals and weights to FitBit. All you have to do to try one is give it a tap. You'll be walked through everything you need to do to set it up and test it. From there, you can look through the services that use IFTTT and start building your own.

I'm not sure what to tell you. we are now in the habit of muting the mic on Home so only the phone responds, because the phone completes the action and Google Home hasn't worked once yet. A quick Google search will show you that this is a thing. There's suggestions from make every letter in the applet a capital letter, to you cant have any capital letters in the applet for it to work.

I hope it works well someday but currently none of my 3 google home devices will trigger an IFTTT applet meanwhile my Pixel and Pixel XL have 100% accuracy in executing the IFTTT applets. :: shrug :: must be me ;)

Yeah, you're completely wrong. I've been using IFTTT with my home since the day it arrived. It works perfectly if you know what you're doing. I use it to call up scenes on my Philips Hue system. Couldn't be much easier so as long as you know what you're doing.

Hi Jerry, I set up IFTTT when I got the Pixel and it worked with my Hue lights and my ecobee3 thermostat. But with Google home, the same IFtTT commands do not work with Home, just the built in commands. Also no dice with ecobee3. It keeps telling me I can't do that yet. Any advice?

I also have 3 of my Home's working with IFTTT, Harmony, Nest, etc. I don't own a Pixel though. I'm wondering if the issue you are facing is that you are using the same assistant account on the Pixel and Home, and Google hasn't done a great job of integrating the two? Maybe the question is whether anyone with a Pixel has been able to get the integrations to work on both the Pixel and the Home?

Now that's s valid question. So I can say that I tested with my phone turned off and the results were the same for me, Home said I'm not able to do that yet. I programmed "turn on the heat". Something generic but IFtTT isn't accepting specific temperature commands for ecobee. Just predetermined degree changes. I wish I could read an Alexa/Nest recipe or even GHone/Nest and try to copy that but IFTTT won't let me unless I own Nest or Alexa, but I don't own either.

Btw.. if anyone sees any "C GE Bulbs" on sale this holiday, don't buy them. They are a nightmare to connect to your phone. I'm gonna play with them tonight and see if my Google Home will work some magic with them, but the bulbs don't play nice with my pixel, iPhone or Nexus 6p.

C by GE are Bluetooth bulbs with slow partnership work on behalf of GE. I have two and I have yet to find a home hub that will work with them. I thought the new Apple TV would. But it does not as far as I can tell. I'm thinking of creating a Raspberry Pi solution that can control them and I might be able to connect them to if this then that. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. If I had known better I would have bought the Philips Hue bulbs instead. You may also want to see what comes out of January's CES Show. GE may make an announcement there.

I have had trouble with this as well. At first google home would recognize the command say its doing it and nothing happens. Other times I would say turn the lights off it would reply that its turning the lights to off and they would all turn on with this dim lit green lighting.

EDIT looks like i found the issue one of the applets was for changing the colors. so it thought I was trying to change the color scheme to "off" looks like that one applet was getting in the way of the rest.

Now the issue is even though i have removed the applets (turning them off first) when I say a command its like its trying to go the IFTTT route vs the regular route.

an example:

turn the lights off - okay turning the lights to off (nothing happens)
Turn all the lights off - okay turning off 13 lights

when I specify the set of lights the command works when I don't it says it works but it doesn't.

I use the phrase Hey Google instead of OK Google to address my Home and that seems to stem any confusion as to whether I am talking to my phone or the hub. I have had Hue, Harmony and Nest working flawlessly from day 1 but am struggling with WeMo integration. Home works with Nest better than the Echo ever did - it can turn the Nest on and off natively, not just adjust the temperature up and down on an already turned on Nest.

Can I really be the only one however who thinks that the Android IFTTT app is such a flagrantly dumbed down confusing mess as to make it practically unusable? I can't comment on the iOS version as no Apple products are allowed in my house so I have not had occasion to use it by way of a comparison. But trying to divine what is meant by Discover vs Search, or hunting down an options gear or wondering what the options presented will actually do when one manages to find them is not my idea of fun. I love the amateur programming vibe behind IFTTT but am completely put off by the simplistic, primary colored, kids' building blocks interface as to dread ever having to go in there and change anything, let alone set up anything new.

Hmm, oh goody ....... i have a Google home device coming in the next week or two,
i would have thought turning on lights or appliances should have been a nice easy seamless operation fully thought out by the big G and it's Associates selling the items.
Sounds like there should be an encyclopedia of do's and don'ts instruction book ..... Or a big dummys guide to home automation ???
Anticipation of frustration and pulling hair out incoming ......... Luckily I'm already bald :) .

Has anyone had success connecting Google Home to an Ecobee thermostat to control/change the temperature based on a variable? I've been able to set a command to change the thermostat to a specific temperature, but I thought there's a way to set it up with a variable based on what you tell Google Assistant (via Google Home). Thoughts???

Funny you should ask, because I just connected my Ecobee to my Google Home.

I'm not sure why IFTTT lets you type in a # sign in the command, when Ecobee only presents you with 8 preset temperature values. I don't think there is a way to say set temp to "desired temp", and the Home set it to that.

I found that the Ecobee IFTTT action of "Set hold for X hours" has a flaw. The "Desired Temperature" values are wrong. I set it for 71, but the thermostat kept setting it at 69. So I realized 71 is actually 69 and 73 is really 71, etc.. It's an easy work around but annoying.